Building a new system for FSX

[Christian Verner 1164995]

Hi Guys,

 

I will be building a new system to run FSX. I'm ready to fork up 2000$ on it.

I'm not very technical so any hardware suggetions would greatly be appreciated. Looking forward to your input.

 

(I hope I placed this thread in the right forum. If not please move it accordingly)

 

Thanks a bunch!!!

 

Chris

[Ernesto Alvarez 818262]

you can build a machine thatll run FSX just fine for less then half that for your budget tho, you can build one thatll blow pretty much any game out of the water

 

all depends what stores and online stores are available to you. prices will vary a lot from place to place. some mom and pop stores will even find you deals on special orders and wont charge you an arm and a leg for it

 

what more are you looking for btw? other then just running FSX. do you want a large monitor, multiple monitors, projection system ( ), etc...

 

what other games will you be running?

[Christian Verner 1164995]

LOL. I dont mind spending less than that .

If I could just get a configuration that works well, I'll use that one

 

I wont be running anything more on that exept Sid Meier's Civilization IV and MS Office.

That's pretty much it. I just want to run FSX with no lag and have great graphics.

 

Thanks

[Christian Verner 1164995]

I would like to be able to have a second monitor. I allready have a 22" widescreen that does the trick for now.

[Ernesto Alvarez 818262]

heres what a friend of mine runs with his FSX and gets 100fps ONLINE

 

Nvidia 260GT 896Mb ---------> Video Card

Creative Labs X-Fi Fatality ----------> Sound Card

ASRock M3A780GXH/128M AM3 AMD 780G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 140W Quad-Core (Reading with 3rd party heatsink you can OC to almost 4Ghz)

G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)Triple Channel

LG DVD Burner Black SATA Model

 

for cooling

XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler with Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

AeroCool Touch-1000 Controller (This is a touch screen fan control panel)

XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler (Red LED)

6 APEVIA CF4SL-URED 80mm Red LED Case Fan

 

total cost was under $1000 @ Newegg.com. a little over $600 actually, he already had his sound and video cards. you could change that to something newer.

 

the monitor and OS might run ya close to the $1000 mark. Win7 isnt cheap, if thats what you want to go with. if you have an OS CD already, one less thing you need to buy i kept my XP after i did mine, i dont plan to use vista, may just jump to Win7 eventually, no rush there.

 

its important to note that your OS version is a big decision maker on what else you buy. #1 on your list should be your operating system, from there you can find out what parts are compatible

 

monitors you can normally find very cheap tho. i have 3 i got for free 2 old CRT's and an LCD. the CRT's dont bother much. if you get creative, you wont even notice them

 

also another important thing to consider is your case, parts have to fit, otherwise youll need a new case you can buy premade cases online/locally, or you can buy a cheap one and customize it yourself. flea markets or garage sales are good places

 

here's his custom rig aswell. did it himself

 

that extra $1000 could be spent buying some goflight modules and other toys just an idea

[Jean Marc Nardelli 1166366]

100 FSP

I want to know the details of settings (graphics, scenery, traffic, meteorology...)

[Ernesto Alvarez 818262]

hes got all max sliders with Activesky and i believe he also has REX installed aswell.

[Christian Verner 1164995]

Hi Ernesto,

 

Wow! Thanks alot! I will do the research on that today. Seems like an awsome system. I have REX, FSP[Mod - Happy Thoughts]engers and MCE. I'm looking forward to using FSX to it's full potential! Once again, thanks alot! I really appreciate your help on this.

 

I'll see you online!

 

Chris

[Ernesto Alvarez 818262]

 

make sure to check out some of the newer video cards aswell.

 

as far as sound goes, that normally is at the bottom of the list. unless you are planning on making a recording studio, you really dont need an expensive sound card, a little cheapo card will do just fine. sometimes you wont even need an extra card, can come built in already with the board

[Christian Verner 1164995]

Just to let you know, I called my supplier and everything is now ordered

I cant wait!!!!!!!

 

Once again, Thanks alot!!!

 

Chris

[Ernesto Alvarez 818262]

 

one key thing to remember if its your first build. static electricity = bad. ground yourself before touching any parts.

 

also dont forget you will need to add thermal compound to your heatsink. there are some good youtube videos thatll show you how to apply the compound. its not very hard, but itll help get it just right.

 

any other questions make sure to ask before powering up! (you did order a power supply right?) been there done that

Edited September 3, 2010 at 01:27 PM by Guest

[Christian Verner 1164995]

Will do

[Erhan Atesoglu 1050499]

100 FSP

I want to know the details of settings (graphics, scenery, traffic, meteorology...)

 

External view... I sometimes get 200 on my i7 no big deal. Anyone should be able to 100 with even a Core Duo...

[Wycliffe Barrett]

100 FSP

I want to know the details of settings (graphics, scenery, traffic, meteorology...)

 

External view... I sometimes get 200 on my i7 no big deal. Anyone should be able to 100 with even a Core Duo...

 

But, why bother with 100fps whne the human eye can only register 24fps.

 

Better to lock your PC at 25 fps and let the resources manage all the GFX bits and scenery etc.

 

Read up on FSX optimisation and yuo will findthat it is optimised to fly smoothly at 15fps. You should try locking at 15 fps and see if you can spot the difference. I have always found a good test for this is to fly over Snowdon (Wales) with my Horizon GenX photo scenery on, I adjust the fps slider and see which looks best.

 

Wycliffe

[Erhan Atesoglu 1050499]

The eye can sense fluid motion in as little as 24.. that's the minimum Wycliffe not the maximum....

[Richard Stevens 1116018]

Howdy all,

 

I just ordered the last tid bits for my first build, which follows...

 

ASUS P6TD Deluxe

Intel i7-930

3x2 Corsair xms3 1600 (Cas 7 or 8 i forget) ill remember to up my voltage slightly

64bit Win7

1 tb Seagate, Combo drive, P2450H, etc, etc

Also and old BFG 280 GTX

 

I spent about 1100USD

 

Its not as far as I want to go but theres plenty of oppoutunity to up the ante on this one as well as OC capability. Read alot of reviews and decide on the Motherboard first, as all will need to be compatable to it. Newegg is an excellent resource. Also the Q&A in PCPilot is also helpful,and talk to the folks here.

 

The price does not include flight yoke, TrackIR, Matrox(with other monitors) and various payware.

 

Id welcome advise also, as I'm just learning myself.

[Ivan Kovacevic 920456]

That's probably gonna be a good PC.

 

If I was buying a new PC for FSX, I'd be going for an Intel i7 and an nVidia card (got an i5-750 now and GTX460 - and I can fly in FSX with 30+ fps with all complex addons and high quality settings).

 

I'm considering trying an i7-860, purely because with some really complex scenery (San Francisco X city scenery) I do get a small performance hit because my CPU seems to be struggling to keep up with that.

[Richard Stevens 1116018]

Howdy All,

 

Ive another question, one I get mixed answers on.

 

How needful is a sound card, particularly now with Audio Environment Airliner Edition?

[Richard Gerrish]

shouldn't be too bad in the process of installing it now will let you know what i find out with onboard audio and with a nice creative

[Lance Middlekamp 933383]

This is a rig im going to make and get back into PC's:

 

COOLER MASTER HAF 922

ASUS M4A89TD PRO/USB3 AM3 AMD 890FX

Thermaltake Toughpower XT TPX-775M 775W ATX 12V Modular

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor

SAPPHIRE 100290SR Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 2GB

eMachines E233Hbd Black 23" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor

 

All for around 1400

What do you think.

[Erhan Atesoglu 1050499]

AMD hasn't made anything that competitive in the desktop market as of late. Best bet is to get an i7. That AMD chip is excellent and pretty popular, but only for servers and supercomputers at this point in time

[Lance Middlekamp 933383]

Well this is a six core processor and is a lot less than the 900 i7 970 six core. Everyone says AMD is a less expensive chip but can preform close to the same as the i7 970. I mean 900 for a chip is just rediculous compared to AMD's 240 for a six core processor.

[Erhan Atesoglu 1050499]

You get what you pay for... after all it's a free market no?

 

Seriously though the i7 you're paying for the 2x fold increase in RAM speeds.

[Christian Verner 1164995]

Howdy All,

 

Ive another question, one I get mixed answers on.

 

How needful is a sound card, particularly now with Audio Environment Airliner Edition?

 

Personally I use the onboard sound card on my EVGA X58 Cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ified MB and it sounds awsome! I dont feel the need to include anything else regarding sound. I also stringly suggest the i7 chip. I have the i7 950 and i'm running everything maxed out and FSX is as smooth as a baby's bottom.

 

Cheers

[Ryan Whitford 995253]

Heres my specs

 

Intel PIII 800Mhz

128 mb Ram

Onboard Intel gfx 56 mb

 

 

Can I run FSX Ultra high?